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Welcome to theOscarSite's yearly Oscars® pages
This page covers the Awards for 1944. If you wish, read my disclaimer.
Click here for information on the Awards Ceremony for this year's nominees.
Use this link to go to my listing of every film and every person ever nominated for an Award!
Use this link to see every film nominated for an Award this year and how it ranks in nominations and Awards!
"Boy! Would we have to tear our hair out if we had to choose a 'best' between Going My Way and Wilson." -- Rambling Reporter
Or use this link to view a larger version of the film.
Best Motion PicturePrior to the Awards for 1951, no producer(s) named with nominations
Scientific Or Technical Class I (Statuette): No award given for 1944.
Class II (Plaque): Stephen Dunn (RKO Radio Studio Sound Department) - For the design and development of the electronic compressor-limiter.
Class III (Citation): Grover Laube (20th Century-Fox Studio Camera Department) - For the development of a continuous loop projection device.
Western Electric Company - For the design and construction of the 1126A Limiting Amplifier for variable density sound recording.
Russell Brown, Ray Hinsdale & Joseph E. Robbins - For the development and production use of the Paramount floating hydraulic boat rocker.
Gordon Jennings - For the design and construction of the Paramount nodal point tripod.
Radio Corporation of America & RKO Radio Studio Sound Department - For the design and construction of the RKO reverberation chamber.
Bernard B. Brown & John P. Livadary - For the design and engineering of a separate soloist and chorus recording room.
Daniel J. Bloomberg (Republic Studio Sound Department) - For the design and development of a multi-interlock selector switch.
Paul Zeff, S.J. Twining & George Seid (Columbia Studio Laboratory) - For the formula and application to production of a simplified variable area sound negative developer.
Paul Lerpae - For the design and construction of the Paramount traveling matte projection and photographing device.
Linwood Dunn & Cecil Love (Acme Tool and Manufacturing Company) - For the design and construction of the Acme-Dunn Optical Printer.
Special Awards Margaret O'Brien - Outstanding child actress of 1944. Winner presented a Miniature Statuette.
Bob Hope - For his many services to the Academy, a Life Membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
FIRSTS · Producer/director/screenwriter Leo McCarey was the first to win 3 Academy Awards for the same picture.
· As a result of a change in the rules, this was the first and last time an actor (Barry Fitzgerald) would be nominated in two categories for the same film.
· Ceremony producer Mark Sandrich's Awards show contained a "cinemontage" -- film clips of every nominee in each category shown as the appropriate nominations were read.
· For the first time, the entire Awards ceremony would be broadcast nationally by the ABC radio network.
RULE CHANGES · This was the first year in which the number of Best Picture nominees was limited to five.
· The Screen Extras Guild lost its voting privileges.
SINS OF OMISSION Picture: Meet Me in St. Louis, Laura, Lifeboat Director: Vincente Minnelli - Meet Me in St. Louis Actor: Fred McMurray - Double Indemnity Actress: Judy Garland - Meet Me in St. Louis, Tallulah Bankhead - Lifeboat Supporting Actor: Edward G. Robinson - Double Indemnity Song: "The Boy Next Door," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (My Baby)?"
UNMENTIONABLES · Mark Sandrich never got to see if his innovations worked; a few days before the ceremony, the 44-year-old director died of a heart attack while playing gin rummy with his wife.
· Bing Crosby decided to attend the ceremony at the last minute. Tracked down by Paramount flacks to the 12th hole of the Lakeside Golf Course, Der Bingle told them to call his parents and they'd go in his place. They did phone his mother, who told him "You'll go or you'll never hear the end of it from me." So Crosby dutifully put on a suit -- but not his hairpiece -- and went to the Chinese Theatre.
· Margaret O'Brien's Special Oscar® recognized her work in Meet Me in St. Louis, Jane Eyre, The Canterville Ghost and Lost Angel.
· Accepting his Award for Best Actor, Crosby quipped, "I couldn't be more surprised if I won the Kentucky Derby. Can you imagine the jokes Hope's going to write about this in his radio show? This will give him 12 straight weeks of material for his radio program, talking about me."
· Hope couldn't wait for his radio show -- after Crosby and presenter Gary Cooper exited, Hope cracked that Crosby's winning an Oscar® was like hearing that Sam Goldwyn was lecturing at Oxford.
· Receiving her Best Actress Award from her friend Jennifer Jones, Ingrid Bergman commented, "Tomorrow I go to work in a picture with Bing and Mr. McCarey [The Bells of St. Mary's]. And I'm afraid if I didn't have an Oscar, too, they wouldn't speak to me."
· Norma Shearer came out of seclusion to present the Thalberg Award, named in honor of her late husband, to Darryl F. Zanuck.
· As in previous years, the studio head rather than the film's producer picked up the Oscar®. Bob Hope, standing at the side of the stage when Hal Wallis announced the Paramount film the winner, made the most of the opportunity. The comedian was temporarily on suspension at the studio, and when his boss, Buddy DeSylva, reached the stage, Hope got on his knees in a mock plea for forgiveness. He then took out a handkerchief and, to the audience's cheers, started shining DeSylva's shoes.
· Ethel Barrymore was not at the ceremony. When she learned that she had won the Academy Award, she told friends she was "not particularly impressed." In her autobiography, she was downright blasé: "And of course it was very pleasant later to get the Oscar®."
· Barry Fitzgerald's win proved more dramatic. After celbrating with his roommate -- his stand-in -- and friends at Barney's Beanery, the actor practised his golf swing at home, accidentally hitting his plaster statuette with a 4-iron and decapitating it. Paramount was forced to shell out ten bucks for a spare. So Fitzgerald did, in a way, end up with 2 Oscars® for the same role that year.
· Losing Best Actress nominee Barbara Stanwyck told the press she was a member of the Ingrid Bergman Fan Club: "I don't feel at all bad about the Award because my favorite actress won it and has earned it by all her performances."
· Darryl Zanuck was not such a good sport. Not content with another bust of the MGM Boy Wonder, he told friends and underlings that the Academy was obviously a corps of philistines if they could pass over Wilson as Best Picture. And until he died, he bitterly complained that his dream project did not receive the rewards he felt it so justly deserved.
And, of course, here's the place where I have to put the disclaimer: This page was created for my own personal use and was intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. "Oscar" and "Academy Awards" are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The "Oscar" Statuette is copyrighted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. These pages are neither authorized nor endorsed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I cannot take responsibility for any errors or omissions on these pages; i.e., if you lose a bet because of something I missed, don't expect me to pay it off!
Sidebar highlights come from several sources, most notably The Academy Awards® - The Complete Unofficial History, by Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza, and Inside Oscar® - The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards®, by Mason Wiley & Damien Bona.
This page is authored by Gary Moody. If you have comments or questions about the page, please e-mail me at gary@theOscarSite.com.
Use this link to go to my listing of every film and every person ever nominated for an Award! 
DOUBLE INDEMNITY - Paramount. [Produced by Joseph Sistrom]
